Is Paul Scholes a Hack?

This past weekend, Manchester United's Paul Scholes came on late in the game versus Arsenal and lasered around the park his usual array of killer through balls. He picked out Rooney with a lovely chip. He fed Chicharito. Overall, he was his usual calm on the ball and skillful self. However, he also doled out his usual array of tackles, or better said, hacks.

It started out with a rough tackle from behind on Marouane Chamakh which there was just no reason at all for the tackle. And then he got into it with Nasri, after Scholes dove in wildly againt Chamakh again.

“You ask me was Scholes a fair player: I say no,” said Wenger. “I’m sorry, for me he was not a fair player. There’s a little bit of a darker side in him, sometimes, that I did not like. I respect him highly as a quality player but I did not like some things he did on the football pitch and I have the right to say that. It’s not because you are older suddenly that you are a saint.

There's not question Scholes is a legend of a player and he will go down as one of the greats in the game. But does that give him the right to take players out with rough challenges? Of course not. It's a shame that this is a part of Scholes game, since he is such a talent and smooth player when he has the ball at his feet.